One of the oldest adages in sports is that offense sells tickets, but defense wins championships. So while a late-season 98-92 win over the New Jersey Nets could hardly be considered akin to a championship, it does show what can happen when you bring your defense.
Wizards coach Flip Saunders said before the game he hoped the early 1 p.m. start wouldn’t be too much of a disruption to his players. After all, most of them are college-age kids anyway, and NCAA games are played early. But in the first half, the Wizards came out sloppy and sluggish.
Saunders was having none of it.
“As I told our guys at halftime, using a few choice words, it’s just a matter of playing hard,” he said. “That’s what we have to hang our hat on.”
Saunders’ words seemed to do the trick. The Wizards outscored the Nets 28-12 in the third quarter, holding New Jersey to just 26.7 percent shooting compared with the Wizards’ 56.5 percent. The momentum swing was in play, which set up as exciting a fourth quarter as the Wizards have played all season.
With just under 2 1/2 minutes left in the game, rookie John Wall scored on consecutive possessions, and pumped up the crowd as he raced down the court, putting the Wizards up by four. The Wizards shot over 62 percent in the final period, while holding the Nets to just under 31 percent, and sealed a much-needed victory that brought their record to 17-51.
“I thought we were outstanding defensively,” Saunders said. “Mo Evans has given us some great minutes these last few games, O [Othyus Jeffers] came in and did a nice job defensively for us, and Yi [Jianlian] came in and did a nice job, made some free throws, got a steal, did some positive things. I’ve talked the last two games about positive reinforcement. It’s not a magic formula, success in this league. If you play hard and you cut down on your mistakes, you’re going to have opportunities and chances. In the second half, we played hard and we didn’t make as many mistakes. We put ourselves in a position to win.”
Yi, rarely a force to be reckoned with in the Wizards game plan, turned in a effective performance against his former team, going three for eight from the floor with nine points and four rebounds.
“I just kept the ball in front of me,” Yi said. “I made a couple of shots; it made me feel good. It felt good to beat them.”
Wall led all scorers with 26 points. He also had eight assists and six rebounds. Jordan Crawford had 21 points, three assists and four rebounds. Maurice Evans added 15 points and JaVale McGee had 16 points and seven rebounds. The Nets high scorer was Brook Lopez with 21, while Anthony Morrow scored 19 and Kris Humphries added 18.
“It’s good to finally get a win,” Wall said. “You don’t want to lose another game at home and then go and have a five-game road trip. Hopefully this will give us some motivation going into Portland. We’ve got a tough road trip. We’ve got to come away with some wins. We’re doing a better job of fighting.”
The Wizards begin a five-game West Coast trip with a game Tuesday in Portland.
• Carla Peay can be reached at cpeay@washingtontimes.com.
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